Retired Lt. Joseph Kaddu learned, at age 12, how to hurl a grenade and shove a bayonet. Now, at 57, he is a successful farmer. However, success has not come on a silver platter as he explains.

"When I left the army, it was hard for me to start life as a civilian. I didn't know any hardships beyond fighting frontiers," he says adding that while in the army, they used to live on handouts yet as a civilian, you have to cater for yourself. "It is a big challenge."

Like Lt Kaddu, a number of army veterans struggle to adjust to a civilian lifestyle. Many of these ex-officials have tried a number of jobs like peddling goods on the streets, washing cars and farming. While some can afford a decent life, many continue to grapple with life.

PRODUCTIVE: Lt. Joseph Kaddu tends to his poultry. Although the transition from the army to civilian life was not smooth, Lt. Kaddu's hardwork finally paid off and his is one of the few success stories.

Lt. Kaddu says that the Shs150,000 initial dispensation package he received did not help much. He had spent most of the money while in Singo where they lived before they were relocated to their respective home areas.

With a wife and 18 children, Lt. Kaddu tried to find his feet in his new (civilian) life and says this is when reality dawned on him. He wasn't educated enough to get a proper job, he had no money and yet he had to provide for his family.

No easy feat

He thought of so many possible projects he could venture in but most of these needed financial input. So he decided that he would do anything that would fetch him a few shillings. Soon, he was at building sites, digging pit latrines and doing many other menial jobs. Lt. Kaddu saved every coin, got a loan and started a piggery project.

The sows later produced 18 piglets and around the same time, he was able to clear most of his debts, which had shot up above Shs1.5m. He sold some of the animals to pay his children's school fees.

Later, he was offered casual work in Namugongo Girls' Boarding Primary School where two of his daughters went to school. With hard work and sacrifice, Lt. Kaddu has become a model farmer in Kiwologoma parish, Kiira Sub-County.

Today, he owns a double storied structure that houses his poultry establishment, 12 pigsty compartments, a six-acre garden on which he grows legumes, coffee, bananas, cassava, pumpkin and spear grass to feed his cows. He sells most of his produce in Kireka markets and others near by. Lt. Kaddu now shares his expertise with others who visit to learn a thing or two.

On the walls of his sitting room are certificates he was awarded in recognition of his contribution to society. Yet his story does not stand in isolation.

A number of veterans have set up a temporary market area in Jinja under the umbrella association, Jinja District Veterans Association Ltd along the Jinja-Iganga highway.

Apart from selling groceries, the place buzzes as people go about their business in metal fabrication workshops, woodwork, bicycle and motorcycle repair workshops, eateries, barber shops and kiosks.

The veterans' chairman, retired Sergeant Lawrence Talugende explains that they acquired land from the district administration. "It was an insecure place whose history identifies with cases of murder, robbery, rape among other acrimonious acts," he explains.

"After acquiring the land, we didn't have money so we instituted a subscription fund where each member contributed Shs110,000."

Most of this money went into clearing the piece of land as well as grading it. They were able to get support from veterans like Jinja's LC 5 Chairman, Hannington Basakana. Talugende is also the chairman of Jin-vet Sacco, a savings and cooperative organisation, which has loaned out scooters (boda bodas) to both veterans and locals.

However, the case seems different for veterans in Kawanda market who are locked in a land row with Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute. This has affected their businesses and many are not sure about their future. They seem a helpless lot and some have redirected their attention to a commercial fishpond Uganda Veterans Assistance Board (UVAB) helped to set up. This probably paints the bigger picture of veterans who continue to struggle to earn a living.

Many have gone to a number of markets around the country but civilians still run these markets at large. A case in point is Kafumbe Mukasa market where Major Gerald Kayabula says they got management rights from Kampala City Council. But veterans here share mixed feelings. Some have tried to start up businesses but failed.

Retired Sergeant Bashir Kamanzi is grateful the market was a respite for many who were saved from hawking petty items along Wilson and Burton streets and around the city. With their savings, they transformed the once dumping site and drainage channels into business structures and stalls that serve as eateries, butcheries and metal fabrication workshops. Sergeant Kamanzi has given up hope of ever receiving any financial assistance from either the government or donors.

Support systems lacking

Sergeant David Rubaaka, also retired seems to share Sergeant Kamanzi's opinion. To him, the retrenchment process was rushed. "Life is harsh. The government retrenched us without putting up developmental projects. They simply succumbed to IMF and World Bank pressures.

The planning was poor. We were given iron sheets but we don't have where to build. We were simply thrown on the streets," he said, adding that they are in a dilemma and since they were trained 'to shoot', they could be compelled into vices like robbery to earn their bread. He alleges that a number of former colleagues have become highway robbers while others have turned to drugs and alcohol to try and get over their problems.

Sergeant Rubaaka says he enjoyed benefits such as housing when he had just left the army. His family stayed in a self-contained flat in Bugolobi but with the turn of events, he ended up in a one-roomed mud house in Mutungo, a neighbouring suburb.

He was later employed as a security guard at a supermarket where he preferred to spend his time rather than face his family. "My family demanded things they were used to. The children would ask, 'Dad, where is butter? Where is the electricity?' I had to sell my bed and fridge to buy necessities. Shs150,000 could not sustain me and I would walk from Mutungo to Kampala. Life was hard," Rubaaka laments.

He blames the government for failing to put up facilitation programmes for veterans, saying it's unfair. "When elections approach, we are useful," he says, adding that, "The government should lend a helping hand especially to veterans with business interests. They should carry out a feasibility study and help us in our respective categories," he says.

Rubaaka, with no academic qualification whatsoever, is only a cadre with little success in business. With a few colleagues, they managed to start a company on credit, supplying maize and beans to the Ministry of Defence but were thrown out of business due to the ministry's payment delays. They could not afford to pay suppliers. Sergeant Rubaaka then considered flying to the UK to try out kyeyo so he could clear a Shs200m debt that had accrued.

Today, he imports Super rice from Tanzania and buys beans from farmers which he then sells but hasn't quite made it yet. Considering the rate at which markets are being leased/sold to private investors, Rubaaka is uncertain about their stay in this location and suggests that KCC gazettes the market.

Corporal Madina Nakalema, a security guard in Mulago complains of giving her all to a job where her efforts are hardly recognised. She walks from Kabusu veterans' market where she resides (in a wooden shack) to Mulago and earns just Shs70,000 a month yet she has to cater for her children and other orphans she looks after.

One of the girls recently tested HIV positive, which echoes doom since she will have to spend more to cater for her medical bills.

James Mukamalinde went into boda boda business, which he has done for three years after failing to make ends meet as a security guard.

Another veteran, Retired Sergeant Harriet Nakajubi, used her severance package to open up a tearoom, which also serves as a local bar at night within the market confines. The dark, iron sheet-and-timber hovel is just next to a drainage channel. Inside the tearoom are two benches and two tables; the menu has tea, porridge, bread and booze. Nakajubi who was forced to join the army at the age of 10 says things have not worked in her favour.

Her daily allowance is less than Shs1,000. At one point, she had started up a small eatery but then failed to pay the rent. Her cutlery was confiscated and she gave up the idea. Although many veterans are interested in starting small businesses, they don't have the means to do so.

The Public Relations Officer UVAB, Samuel Mweru says that the uniting body would have wanted to help more but have limited funds. He says the other challenge is that many veterans are not qualified and as such UVAB has put in place a programme to help them join schools and tertiary institutions. The body has also tried to help veterans by setting up income generating projects in several districts countrywide.

They have also organised self-help workshops. It's from these that some veterans have acquired skills. James Kivumbi for instance now grows sugarcane that he supplies to Madhvani of Kakira Sugar Works.

From the look of things, it remains a question of motivation for the ex-officials. Many are willing to work but lack the finances whereas others are already trying but need help.